Posted by Graeme Thickins on December 22, 2008
TAH-DAH! We completed another upgrade to OnePlace™ over the weekend! To be precise, it happened on 12/21/08 at 7:30am CST. As you know, we push updates to OnePlace™ approximately once a week—and, in some recent weeks, we've done it even more often that that. We love listening to our customers!
What's the major addition this time? A OnePlace™ "Customer Forum"! It gives you a convenient way to communicate not only with the OnePlace team, but with other OnePlace™ customers as well! Check out this new feature today by simply clicking on the 'Forum' link in the upper righthand corner of your OnePlace™ screen. Or, you can visit the forum directly by going to the following url: http://forum.oneplacehome.com.
Posted by Graeme Thickins on December 11, 2008
When we say the OnePlace™ team is ever-vigilant, folks, we're not just a whistlin' Dixie. The dedicated development team here at OnePlace's worldwide headquarters (half buried in snow here in suburban Minneapolis), never rests—constantly stretching their minds for new ways they can make your favorite software better. They never let up in their quest to help you take maximum advantage of OnePlace to boost your team's productivity. Not only did they push an update on December 8, but dog-gone if they didn't follow that with yet another one on December 10! Here's what these two updates included...
Posted by Graeme Thickins on December 04, 2008
If you aren't, it's real easy if you have a Twitter account. As you know, you just go to our page and click on the "Follow" tab: www.twitter.com/OnePlace. Not on Twitter yet? Well, check it out - it's free! 
You can sign up in seconds at Twitter.com. Most people use their first name, last name as their Twitter "handle" (though some like to be creative). Then, you just enter in a few items on your profile, including a (max) 160-character description, "tweet" your first 140-character post, and you're off and running!
Posted by Graeme Thickins on November 28, 2008
One thing we can say about our crack development team, they are ever-vigilant. They upgraded OnePlace™ again on 11/23/08 at 7:30am CST—even though it's been less than a week since the last upgrade! The OnePlace™ team added several enhancements that have been requested by nearly everyone. Here are the highlights of this latest upgrade:
• Project "Save As" - Now you can make a copy of a project!
• List "Save As" - Make as many copies of a list as you want.
• New Bookmarks List type - Share your bookmarks with your teammates, or just keep all your favorite bookmarks in one place.
• Export Tasks preview - If you're using the Export Tasks capability, then you will love this new capability.
• TeamPulse filter update - There are now separate settings for determining: 1) who you're pulsing to, and 2) which pulses do you want to see?
That last feature will strike a chord with Twitter users! (It's part of our recently announced TeamCentral capability.) First, you can actually select who you want following you (something you can't do in Twitter). Secondly, you can select which of your team members you want to follow (same as in Twitter)—so that you're sure to see all their ongoing updates, or "pulses" as we say in OnePlace™ lingo. Best of all, it's easy for you to adjust either of these selections anytime via this TeamPulse "filter."
Posted by Graeme Thickins on November 24, 2008
Over the weekend, we were honored to be included in an article in the PioneerPress, one of two major dailies in these parts (and one whose circulation is actually growing). It appeared in Sunday's business section: "Private Twitter-like microblogging services can facilitate communication, cooperation among employees working on the same team or project." 
The writer was longtime local technology reporter Julio Ojeda-Zapata, who also happens to be one of the most plugged-in reporters in the country in the ways of social media, including Twitter (he's even written a book, just being released: "Twitter Means Business").
Posted by Graeme Thickins on November 18, 2008
This past Wednesday evening, Riverock Technologies' fearless cofounders, Steve Kickert and Denis Ahearn, took to the stage at Minnesota's own quarterly Barcamp event to demo the OnePlace™ app in the strictly proscribed time of seven minutes. And deliver it well they did—one of ten presentations to a standing-room-only, information-hungry crowd of developers, founders, VCs and other investors, marketing folks, local media, and tech bloggers, all jam-packed into the theater at Intermedia Arts in Uptown Minneapolis. It was one high-energy event focused on technology innovation in MInnesota, in the form of ten hand-picked, highly promising startups. (In the photo, Steve does the talking, while Denis mans the controls in the foreground. Photo credit: Manish Shrestha.)
Posted by Graeme Thickins on November 17, 2008
In case you haven't noticed yet, we upgraded OnePlace™ yesterday (11/16/08) at 10:45pm CST. It's been nearly two weeks since our last upgrade, but we're sure that, once you see what's in this upgrade, you'll agree the wait was worth it! Here are some highlights:
• The recently announced "TeamCentral" feature just got B-I-G-G-E-R and better! We added two more functions we call TeamSchedule and TeamActivities. (If you're keeping count, that's three functions with TeamPulse!) TeamSchedule is a view into the upcoming work for your team, letting you know what things your teammates have planned. It supports lots of different timeframes, so you can see work that's scheduled for yesterday, today, tomorrow, this week, next week, etc. TeamActivities allows you to see the trail of work that your teammates leave as they work throughout the day. That means you no longer have to guess at what work has been completed. We also enhanced TeamPulse to allow you to direct your pulses. You can pulse to everyone you collaborate with, to a select team (i.e., a Workplace), or to just a single individual. You pulse, and we keep track of it all! (If you're a Twitter fan, remember that pulse=tweet (or update)... but one big difference is that OnePlace™ does automatic, system-generated pulses/updates as well!)
Posted by Graeme Thickins on November 15, 2008
New to OnePlace™? Ready to dive in and get get going? Well, do we have a great place for you to start! It's our new "Quick Reference" page—which is instantly accessible via a link in the upper right of your OnePlace™ user interface. (Of course, first you must start a free trial to see it!) We designed it to help you get a good feel for what OnePlace™ is all about, and how you can get the most from it. No other online collaboration software has such a feature! Just another way we show our love for our users... :-)
Posted by Graeme Thickins on October 22, 2008
We're excited to announce that the Riverock team will be one of a handful of startups presenting at the next quarterly gathering of developers, investors, and other movers-and-shakers in our state's technology community. Steve Kickert and Denis Ahearn will be demoing our OnePlace™ collaboration app in the strict time limit imposed on all presenters—only seven minutes! (Yes, with a full-featured app like ours, this will be a challenge!) All presenters must show real, working software—and the only other rule is no Powerpoint! It all takes place the evening of November 12 at Intermedia Arts, Uptown’s coolest art gallery/performance space...
Posted by Graeme Thickins on October 22, 2008
Joel Dreyfuss has a long history as a journalist; he's a well respected voice in the industry. In his current position as editor-in-chief of Red Herring, he's carrying on the mission of a very famous brand name in technology journalism, which traces back to 1993 and is now in its second coming as a source of news about innovation, technology, financing, and entrepreneurial activity.
Posted by Graeme Thickins on October 14, 2008
Minnov8.com is a news and information site about Minnesota innovation in Internet and web technology. Its About page tells the story: "Borne out of a frustration that there wasn’t a showcase for the talent, brainpower, creativity, and innovation that exists in this Land of 10,000 Lakes, several geeks set forth on a quest to deliver a destination site for just such a purpose." Steve Borsch is the lead geek, and the most frequent writer on the site. Some weeks ago, he met with Riverock's CEO Steve Kickert to learn more about the OnePlace™ online team collaboration and work management system, and later wrote an excellent piece about it.
Perhaps the best excerpt from the Minnov8 article is this one: "What did I like about OnePlace?" Borsch asked. "It’s easy to use and, within 15 minutes, I’d used most of the key features that enabled project/task management; time tracking; reporting; calendar; discussions; file sharing; notes; lists and more. I loved the iPhone interface. Connecting what we do on our desktop computers or laptops to internet/web server functionality 'in the cloud' isn’t enough when we carry around devices like an iPhone..."
Borsch concluded his article this way: "I’d encourage you to go to OnePlace and sign up for the free trial. You’ll undoubtedly see that it already has hit the sweet spot of what’s needed to collaborate with others. If you’re waiting until risk-becomes-reality and you or your company can’t go into the office and you need to collaborate virtually — or even if you figure you’ll just keep emailing around .doc’s and spreadsheets to those with whom you’re collaborating — OnePlace is an offering that is perfect for today’s increasingly mobile and always-on, always-connected workforce collaborating with one another online."
Posted by Graeme Thickins on October 14, 2008
Our local business weekly here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, The Business Journal, regularly reports on promising new startups. Recently, tech reporter Kathy Grayson, in her weekly column, interviewed Steve Kickert about Riverock's OnePlace™ online team collaboration and work management system. An excerpt: "The product offers a Web portal where employees working on group projects can find files, schedules and other information, as well as communicate. It also allows workers to collaborate across different organizations, and access data via mobile phones."
The article goes on to note that OnePlace™ users also get a private personal workplace online "where they can track their outside-of-work schedules. That’s a feature Riverock hopes will make the tool more appealing to workers, who sometimes view mandated collaboration tools as a hassle, said CEO Steve Kickert, who served as chief technology officer at HighJump for 16 years." Our local edition of The Business Journal has a paid circulation of about 12,000 for the print version, and its web site gets more than 137,000 unique visitors monthly, according to recent reports.